Keeping Your Cleaning Employees Happy

Because cleaning seems like an easier job to do, it doesn't seem like something that people need formal training in. You tend to get a lot of people who think that they can just do the job tomorrow and it's a "filler position" before they find a different type of job. By offering something like health benefits or a retirement plan - anything long-term that's also showing that you care enough about your employees that you're investing in them in the long term, then you're going to attract better people who are looking for a career, as opposed to just a temporary position. You're also going to be able to keep those people around because they are in a career.

Offering benefits may seem like it's it's cost prohibitive for many businesses, but it actually really isn't. I was lucky enough to find a benefits broker, to whom I said, "This is the budget we have, what can you give us?" You might not be offering 100% dental coverage (it might be 50%) but you're still giving them something. As well, it's very common of course that employees will pay a portion of their benefits so you don't have to pay for the entire payment, and it actually was really affordable. I think for eight to ten employees, we were only paying about $400 a month. Again, remember that benefits were enormously responsible for keeping staff for years. Figure out how much money are you losing all the time because you have that revolving door of staff. It's really expensive to have to keep hiring employees and it's difficult to put a dollar amount on that.

However, you have to think about the fact that you are advertising, so there's money that you're paying to advertise for those positions. Then consider your time screening applicants, your time interviewing, then the time it costs to train them. Then, naturally, they're not going to be necessarily your best (i.e. most efficient) employees at the beginning, so you have to often compensate for the mistakes that will make. Costs also include giving clients discounts because you're sending people back to re-clean. As well, when you have an unstable workforce, it's really difficult as a business to grow. You might be growing in sales still because your marketing is working and you're finding lots of new customers, but if you don't have that stable, really wonderful group of people who are helping your business grow, and retaining those clients for you, then you'll never start to see the profits that you need to see!

Are you looking for more help with hiring and training your cleaning staff? Check out The Ultimate Staffing Program and Glisten, my complete training system for elite cleaning staff (video demonstrations, audio instructions and detailed checklists).